Snapdragon's chat

January 10, 2013

The fog has lifted

Tomorrow I head off down to London where I have a stand at the Trade Show Top Drawer in Earls Court. This is my opportunity to display what we do to thousands of potential buyers - gift shop and gallery owners, department store buyers, museum and heritage purchasing departments.

For the past few months I have been mithering on, boring friends and family about my worries over where wholesale fits into the whole business.

I kept working on the trade show stand but, if I am honest, my soul wasn't really in it.

Last year we didn't really chase wholesale orders. The price of our wool, velvet, linen and lavender all went up again and again as world commodity prices soared; we made decisions to change our packaging to biodegradable corn starch instead of the cheaper cellophane and to get our badge and mirror components made in Europe rather than China.

Each of these meant just an extra few pence on an item, but one after the other they mounted up and eroded our profit margin. Over the year we had to withdraw several ranges from our wholesale catalogue as we were actually making a loss on them. Then in the summer we had a clutch of our stockists go under, some leaving unpaid bills which had to be written off. Cash flow in retail shops seemed to get tighter and tighter and I got fed up with Valerie spending hours chasing up overdue invoices. I considered giving up wholesale completely and concentrating on the buoyant and blossoming retail side of the business.

But then I thought of the joy that I have in developing ranges for some of our stockists - the blackbird cushions for Edwards and Todd, the intricate rigging of our Cutty Sark range, the cosy chintzy things I make for Dove Cottage.

So the new samples mounted up on the table and this morning, as it looked like this outside, the fog in my head lifted and I suddenly saw exactly how the stand will look.

Which is just as well with 24 hours to go before the only Trade show we do.

For at Snapdragon we excel at bespoke and short runs of individual things - we have built up a way of working that allows us to customise, tweak and innovate at very little extra cost. In a world where everyone google searches before they buy this is a distinct advantage. And that is what I hope to convey on my stand.

So if you happen to be visiting Top Drawer do come and see me on stand R60.

A very honest account of the current climate - we've been having many a conversation along the same lines in recent weeks. So fed up of chasing payments, etc. You'll have a fab show and it will be lovely to see you but I agree, wholesale is changing and it's how you change with it that's important. See you in London x